E179: 2025 Hormone Diets and Meal Plans to AVOID and What To Do Instead with Dr Heather Rhodes

Are the latest hormone diets secretly hurting your health? If you’ve ever Googled “how to balance hormones” and felt overwhelmed by countless trendy diets, you’re not alone. In this episode, Dr Heather Rhodes and I closely examine the most popular hormone diets for 2025—what works and what doesn’t—so you can avoid wasting time or harming your body with unsustainable approaches.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why eliminating certain food groups can mess with your hormones and slow your metabolism.
• The hidden ways gut health can impact you.
• Tips for naturally balancing your hormones WITHOUT strict diets.
• Easy changes you can make today for better energy, digestion, and health.

Don’t fall for the hype—tune in to uncover common myths about hormone diets and find out how to support your hormones for a healthier you in 2025!

January 1:1 $97 Hormone Audit spots open

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IG: @drheatherrhodes

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Transcript

Leisha

Welcome to the Happily hormonal podcast. Now, if you're a little iffy on whether or not the word hormonal is a good one, then you are in the right place. If you would love to have lasting energy, balance hormones and better periods when you find yourself spending all of your precious time after the kids. To bed researching what to eat, what supplements to take, how to exercise, and you feel overwhelmed. Info out there. And I've got. I believe she drew a registered nurse and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, plus momma of three little ones, and I know that hormonal balance doesn't have to be hard. Help you balance your hormones without perfection, with simple steps that actually work for busy Mamas. You can feel good inside and out and be present joyful. And confident in the beautiful life you're already living. If you are in for happy hormones taking messy action and seeing results without perfection and put your hair in that mamba and grab your toddler, the 7th snack of the day and grab yourself a bone broth. Hot chocolate so. Do this. Hey, friend. Welcome back to the podcast. I have my good friend Doctor Heather Rhodes here with me today. Been a minute since she's been. So we're really excited and we wanted to start today and start almost 2025 by looking. At some of the trends that are out there, when it comes to hormone balance and hormone diet especially. We started Googling and looking on ChatGPT to see what you're going to find. When you. You look up. How to balance my hormones in 2025, where hormone balance diets 2020? So I started looking at some of those terms and we have found some gold for you. So we're gonna go through today. Why? These are all a terrible. Basically, we're gonna go through and tell you what is and isn't a good idea so that you don't make the mistakes that so many women are going to make based on. The recommendations out there so welcome, Heather. So glad that you're here.

Heather

I'm glad to be here, I. Will say too, I feel like. There's definitely like there's some of them are so awful. We. But I'm thinking like from the chat deputy perspective, what I feel like is the neatest thing. Why I would listen into this episode and I weren't me. That like it's so close to hitting the mark that you would do it and it sounds really good and then you'd be so frustrated with your body and I think that's why we do what we do because we're like, hold on a second like we want you to. Good. Your body works and how good it is at doing what it's supposed to do. So we just want to show you where. You might be just a couple degrees off. My mentor talks about how if you had an airplane going from New York to LA maybe or London somewhere like that, if it gets saw. No, that's it. If it's going from New York to LA and it like the G. Is off by 1 degree 1°. Then you'll end up in London, which is a very different place than LA. And so that's kind of what I was thinking about when we were talking about what is happening in 2025 with women. Bonnie's in their diet and their hormones. How do they actually get results? It's so true.

Leisha

And I, you know, I said. Why?

Heather

All these are terrible.

Leisha

Obviously there are good ones out there, but the ones that we came up with a quick and easy Google search, there's a lot of things about them that are not something we recommend. I'm gonna start with one that is just called. The hormone reset diet. And I'm gonna go through and kind of just highlight the things that they say are ideal and what this is for. Four. So this hormone reset diet is advertised to help reset female hormones for weight loss. So it's a 21 day program and it's an elimination diet that requires excluding a lot of real food. This is my here's red flags for me already. 21 day program. You cannot change your hormones in 21 days. Necessarily not in the way that they're saying it guarantees or promises that you'll lose 15 lbs in those 21 days. Guys, if you do lose 15 lbs in 21 days, that is not weight. That will last forever because you are cutting out so much food that you're not going to be eating much of anything. So that's a huge red flag as well. And then the things that it. You to exclude. Are pretty. Foundational to be able to get enough nutrients in your body so. You need to exclude in this diet you need to exclude meat. Except for fish oil, there is fish that I'll tell you about in a minute. Alcohol, OK? Totally on board with that part fruit not on board with excluding fruit, especially not long term. But even for 21 days like there are a lot of nutrients in fruit when you're eating it in a way that is balanced. That are really helpful for your body and your body needs that for safety needs those really good carbs for. It excludes grains. I'm not going to say you could never exclude grains for 21 days and be. That's a little more on the line for me. And then it also excludes dairy, but it does actually include some organic dairy. What you can eat on this diet is. You need to aim to eat a pound or more of vegetables per day, so they specifically recommend asparagus. Leafy greens, zucchini, mushrooms and bell Peppers. You imagine eating a pound of mushrooms.

Heather

I'm thinking besides the fact that this diet, like eliminate everything that our bodies are meant to live off of like I think again, it comes so much from the approach to of how do you see the human body? You see it as something that was designed to work in a certain way that has been working. For literally like thousands and thousands and thousands of. Or do you see it as something that, like we can just figure out these magic ways to manipulate and control and? Expect that the. Benefits will outweigh the side effects. You know of that. But the other thing I think about to you is that I would say at least with the clients I work with, the vast majority, I'm probably close to like 75 to 80% of them, they don't eat. Bad. But they do have really screwed up guide and a lot of times they're good. They're screwed up because they don't make enough progesterone and their cortisol's all over the place, so they're not breaking down their hormones the way they need to and their stress system ISN. Regulated the way it needs to be. And a lot of that goes back to. Gut and I am just imagining somebody. Gorman under. Because their metabolism has slowed down and their gut isn't functioning. And now they're trying to eat a pound of leafy greens. Not even to mention the disgusting mushrooms, because they're just but like a pound of leafy greens going into an already screwed up. Guy like there's just you would like.

Leisha

You would probably greens don't weigh anything, so that's.

Heather

With how much work that is just literally asking your body to work overtime. 24/7 never rats, never reset, never restore, and giving it a budget of like a dollar. Day it would. Be like if somebody like walked into your house and was like, hey, Lisa, can you watch my 11 children for the day? I'll give you a dollar.

Not like. Many more that you want to help, but just like for like a job like somebody hired you on Facebook market. Babysitter.

Leisha

Yeah, I mean that's such a good point because OK, starting with like, if you're eating mostly these vegetables, I absolutely agree with the point that so much of the time. Your gut is not where it needs to be. If your hormones are not where they need to be. I think the eating some of these vegetables is a great idea, but eating a pound a day and keeping it to specifically less starchy, high fiber choices, it's going to be like night and day from probably what you're eating now for one thing, but also like your G. Going to have a real hard time breaking that down. I think. That that's a huge red flag.

Heather

21 days of not eating things that you're eventually going to go back to eating because it's very rare that you can sustain a diet like that. But that's long enough for your gut bacteria to basically the way your gut bacteria works. That the bacteria that you need come from eating. The foods that that bacteria break down. So like if you are eating meat, then that meat is actually feeding the bacteria that breakdown meat. Kind of how your gut. So if you have 21 days without that bacteria, then when you do try to eat grains or dairy or meat again. You're automatically going to be set up forgot problems because you've had long enough for you to have a die off of the bacteria. You need to actually break these. It's it truly will help your. But doing it in the right way 'cause I was looking at why they exclude me and it said on here like mainly because most hormone imbalance problems are from estrogen dominance. And so I'm guessing they're assuming the meat is like contributing to estrogen dominance. But as you and? And what we teach our clients is that like. There's very specific reasons meat can do that, but there's ways around it and there's ways that that doesn't to be what? For you with me. It's just really interesting that they take like one tiny, tiny like ounce of. And makes it a foundation.

Leisha

And so they do allow for free range eggs and poultry as long as it's organic, which I'm on board with that wild caught fish on board with that. I think those are great protein sources, but I don't think that they should be the only protein sources that you. Because you are going to be missing out on a lot of fat soluble vitamins when you are eating. You know, foods that don't contain and and depending on the fish like you're going to be getting some, but you're not going to be getting some of those same nutrients as you would be getting. For example, like grass fed beef. And those nutrients are really important for your detox pathways, and they're really important for. Keeping things moving and keeping things working in the enzymes that you need in your body so that on top of really, really pounding the vegetables is going to be hard. Your body to shift too. The other thing that they do allow is 0 calorie. So you can do like stevia, erythritol, xylitol because they don't increase blood sugar. According to this and I'm looking at Heather's face right now. Can't see it, but she doesn't agree.

Heather

I mean stevia, I'm down with. Just hate erythritol. It creates even in me personally, like this jittery. Like anxiety, heart palpitations, and I said with a lot of my clients too, and I know that the studies show like, hey, it doesn't really affect insulin. But I'm like, hey, it does something. And we also know that I'm just again thinking about. The number one driver, in my opinion right now that I'm seeing of hormone imbalance is the metabolism being screwed up. And So what fueled the metabolism? What is the actual like budget? Your body is using to determine who gets the. Your thyroid, your gut, your hormones, its sugar, and so if you have somebody who's already got hormone imbalance, my guess would be their metabolism is already slow.

Cravings and already turned on. And now we're going to try and add restriction, which is literally setting them up to fail at the craving centers turned on this diet. Talk about turn the cravings in first is actually just going to amplify the cravings center, literally setting you up for fail. But then also. If you take away sugar, you're automatically turning it on and making it louder. And so now you're saying, like, hey, we're going to make your body be screaming at you all day long for fuel, and we're going to take away some of the best fuel sources that you have. Not only sugar, which is a great fuel source, but also your ability to eat that sugar in a way that doesn't create bikes and crashes. We're taking away. Your meat. Like we're taking away your long acting carbs. Taking. The things that would help provide more of that stability, but along the artificial sweeteners, yeah, I just am never a fan of artificial sweeteners. If you think too about like oh, I found this thing and.

Heather

Greeting with xylitol, so it should be fine for me to have and that's just some interesting studies about xylitol. Won't go on that one right now, but if they. The trial. Nine times out of 10, what you're actually getting is this product that's like filled with chemicals. Just the number one chemical in it, like it's hard to find like a real. Food that just has them added. I'm thinking about like ice creams and yogurts and additives that you like put in your water to make it taste. And I'm like, man, now we're just like, let's take away the things your body was made to run on and give it some chemicals instead. So that you can lose 8 lbs of water weight in 21 days, and then you'll probably lose 7 lbs. It would probably be mostly muscle in my opinion. Yeah, yeah.

Leisha

So while we're while we're talking about like sugar, essentially like a sugar fast and like a sugar detox, because that's what this in some ways is. Yeah. Will you just break down like, why that isn't really doing what people think it's doing? When it comes to like the artificial sweeteners and like cutting out all the carbs and.

Heather

Yeah. I mean, I think the reality is that it's really, really difficult to sustain long term. Help in the sense of how I would measure health, which is energy level and libido and cycles that are really great and not having brain bot and really being able to do the things that you love in your life well. And your body like supporting you and feeling you to do that. I feel like that's a really hard thing to do without having sugar, right? The 21 day sugar detox and all this stuff about like pulling out sugar. I just have a hard time with it because I'm like, hey, that's not ever teaching you or teaching your body or priming your. To be able to manage sugar. And sugar is something that your body's gonna need to have. Something that your body feels off of. Body has it for a. Your body will take things that aren't sugar and turn them into sugar because it needs it so much. So I'm like, hey. All this energy and all this effort around this idea of sugar Lily, not do it to teach the body. How to stabilize blood sugar? To stabilize insulin. How to stabilize its responses to carbohydrates? A lot of times, people that feel the need to do like sugar detox. And pull out sugar. It's coming from a place of essentially struggling, maybe with some of these things like excess fat or sugar cravings or hypoglycemic. Like knowing I'm always hypoglycemic or I always gravitate after dessert or just like addicted to sugar and a lot of times I'm like hey, you might not. Be addicted to sugar. Is sugar addicting? Yeah. But it's addicting because your body, every cell in your body, is designed to respond to it, because every cell in your body needs it to function. So I'm like, hey, you can view it in that. Like me saying, I'm addicted to water, but it's like there's kind of a reason. So what if I just created a better relationship and learned how to create it? So you might be showing some addictive. Fruits in the sense of like I just crave it all the time and I'm always thinking about my next. Or I can't say no and that to me just tells me like, OK, like your body is just struggling with finding what we call homeostasis, which just means stability. And so your body wants to have this great relationship where it trusts that it's going to have. Sugar. It needs it, and then it's gotten enough sugar that it needs. And when those two things are in place. It basically turns down that noise and you're able to absorb if you want it or not, like like to literally just exist. Kind of like I do with water. Don't really work. That like, Oh my gosh, when am I gonna get water again? Or I have to have water after every meal or it only becomes villainized because we've gotten really out of touch, in my opinion with how to exist in, like this good balanced way and. Mean there? Issues with batted sugars and food that you know are filled with sugar and only sugar, but a lot of times I find that when people learn how to have this great relationship and how good like other really nourishing food can be. Sugar just becomes what it was meant to be, which is just like this little. Fun thing like I could have some ice cream today, or I could have it 5 days from now and be totally OK. Way you know, and I remember, that was not the case, especially for me for very, very, very long. I'm talking years and the years that that was something I struggled with. It was because I lived in a very restricted place. My hormones were all over the place I made. My stress hormones are out of control and all that came from me trying to have a lot. Lot of control. Troll over my body, specifically my weight. And so I created this really dangerous imbalance with my relationship with. And I was living off of sweet articles, sweeteners and always trying to cut anything with added sugar and villainize all these foods. It wasn't until I realized like, oh, this is how my body works. It actually needs. What if I learned how? Sugar in the right ways. It kind of just fell into place where I naturally have this relationship with sugar and it's. Yeah, sometimes I overdo. And if I do, I say, OK, cool. I'll have less next week then I have less the next week. Know especially I think. And the fertility world? People can get, really. Up in. Like I don't need anything with added sugars and I don't need sugar and. This. And I'm like girl, you might need some sugar like. I might be a part of the problem that your body's. Time trying to find a fuel source source. That it can't focus on feeling safe enough to just like, start making a whole other human. You know, like, if the body is spinning all its time seeking for something, it needs to survive. It's not really in the mode where it's focusing on like oh.
We have so.

Heather

Much. It's time to replicate.

Leisha

Yeah. And just to clarify, like we are not advocating for artificial sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup and like these processed junkie forms of sugar, we're not even advocating for like.

Heather

Oh no.

Leisha

Most versions of. Suites that are out there like buying muffins at the grocery store or cookies or even ice cream like so much of that has so many added ingredients, and we're talking about like the real forms of sugar that was made. And like we've been eating for years and years. Things like like fruit and root veggies and then like. If you are looking for a treat, making something that has like organic dairy and cane sugar and. Yolks that ice cream is not going to be the same, you know, detriment to your body and you're not going to crave it in that same way where they're like they're truly are addictions to the chemicals and Oh yeah, like additives in so many things that we would. Like sugar these days. So I. I do want to clarify that we're not saying like. Whatever. Get the ice cream at Sonic all the time. Thank. That's not gonna help your hormones. And I fully. And I said this a million times that when I was in such a restrictive state myself and I was like, really looking to lose weight and I was, like, tracking every single thing that I was eating. And I was, like, beating myself up for every decision that I. Number one, I wouldn't sugar all the time and if I got some, I was gonna eat a ton of it because my body was, like, so depleted. And I wasn't focused on like, what good foods can I eat to nourish my body? Was just. Oh, like, what has the least calories right? Like what has the? Calories.

No, that actually.

Leisha

Made like fit my macros or whatever I was doing.

Heather

Yeah, and. Actually puts you in a place a lot of times where you're eating things that have the least amount of calories so that you can have more of the things with more sugar because. Higher macro foods like that was something I ran into and I was like big into the macro situation was I would eat so much like nothing was about nourishing myself. Was about how can I like save up as many macros as possible to have something that's really rewarding, and what felt really rewarding at that time. Was something that typically had like a lot. Sugar or? Lot of you know. And I don't say too, though, people sometimes, and we might see a little differently on this. But even thinking about like the muffin and stuff. I'm like, man, if I go to Trader Joe's and I'm looking at like. Their breads and like their muffins and stuff.

I'm.

Heather

Not looking at sugar as an ingredient that I like care a whole lot about that's in. Like I know there's gonna be sugars in the muffins, you know, but like, I am looking at the corn syrup. I'm looking at enriched grains. Like I'm looking at if things are enriched. Like I'm looking at the chemicals. Looking at that type of stuff. So I definitely think that. And there's even times where I would say like, yeah, sure, my family's going to Dairy Queen. I'll go to Dairy Queen. But the point is that, like my body's nourished on so many other things that it can have that and be like, OK, cool. We can take it or leave it. Yeah, absolutely.

Leisha

I think we can be talking about two different things. Like if we're like. You are in a place where your hormones are disaster. You are looking for. You're Googling things on the. You're kind of like desperate and overwhelmed at this. This is typically where you're gonna be looking for this information. I'm gonna have different recommendations of just like safety in the foods you're eating versus like my hormones have been at a good place for a long time now and like same sometimes we do go to. Queen. That is very much like the exception versus the like. This is what I do to balance my. And so that's kind of more the perspective I'm coming from right now is like we want to talk about what you do need to do to balance your hormones instead of these restrictive fads. I absolutely understand why it's like OK. 21 days. I'm just going to hit it hard. It'll be pretty sucky, but like, what if I really do lose the weight and I feel better than it'd be worth it, right? So I understand like why that sounds so great. And it's very likely not going to get you to the place where you think it's going to get you and there's going to be some negative effects from it because your body is going to get. You're essentially like going to be causing stress in so many other different ways that even if you do see some weight loss or some improvement, it's like you're not going to stay eating like this forever. And so even the website that I was looking at was kind of.

Heather

The Oscar losing when you lose it that fast, you're losing muscle. I mean, there's honestly don't believe from like, a weight science perspective, there's. To lose weight that fast and not see a rebound on the other side, right. Absolutely. Which is so much.

Leisha

It's just so discouraging to if you finally make some progress and then it just like goes the other way. So that's a hormone reset diet and essentially like. Mostly cons in my opinion, but there are a few. To it. And so I would love to hear from you because I know that you started looking in GPT for like hormone diets, hormone trends like tell me some of the things you found and let's talk about. The good and the bad with.

Heather

Yeah. So I was asking Chatg PT like what are. The trends and honestly, the trends are pretty much what we're talking about. A lot of stuff around personalized nutrition. Hormone balancing diets. Kind of similar to what you talked about in the sense of like reducing processed sugar intake, eating more. I mean eating cream, which has been around like forever. Lots and lots about adding specific food that support hormonal. So adding in Adaptogens or adding in phytoestrogens or I think a lot about how people are like, I've been eating sweet potatoes and lean fish. And and all these things and my progesterone levels still aren't where they need to be. And a lot of times I feel like where that can. Go haywire a little bit is because you're still coming at it from this perspective of certain foods. Will change my hormones. Like if I eat these foods. This is what will. Or if I don't eat these foods this. What? Happen and what I've seen is that's never the actual answer. So if you think about baking a cake. The ingredients that go into that batter, they matter, right? It matters if you put. Eggs. Or if you put mayonnaise in your cake, right? You're going to get 2 very differe. Right. Situations there, but it's not all that matters. So there's so many people focus so much on like very specific foods. What foods try you to boost progesterone? Try eat to lower testosterone. What foods? Try to pick stress hormones that they have this batter. Feel like it's. But then that's where it stops. And just like baking that cake, that can't be where it stops a part of the recipe for baking the cake is knowing what temperature do you put it in. Of an app and how long do you leave it in the oven? Right. And so I think about that a lot because if I put that cake in the oven at 100° for 50 minutes, I'm gonna get a really different cake than if I put it. The oven for at 4:25 for 10 minutes. You know, like you're gonna have problems kinda like either way. And so that is something that I just like to encourage people with is like, hey, it is the overall picture of really your lifestyle. And I think about that in the sense of like your overall. Metabolism like where is it at considering that craving? Considering your blood sugar, considering you could be eating all the perfect foods, but if your timings right or your overall amount or your timing's wrong. Overall amount is wrong. Your blood Sugar's going up and. Or you have so much stress around the way you're eating it, or you're loading your body down with SUPP. And try and eat all these perfect foods and trying to exercise all the time and not sleeping like it's the whole picture. And I think that's one thing that I just noticed on chatdb T like man, this could be so sneaky because these things don't sound raw they. Like I would read them and be like oh, like that makes sense. Makes sense, but a lot of people are doing them. And not getting results and then getting really really rough rated with their bodies and feeling like it's me. It's my motivation. It's my discipline. Like my body's just broken and I'm kind of like, no, no, no. Just that like you are, you only have half the recipe. And that is where I think the need for having someone from a functional perspective come in and like offer support is really. You know, if I only read half of the manual of how to play basketball, I couldn't go out and play a game without being really frustrated. Got to have a coach to make sure. One you got the whole manual. Is seeing hey. I know that you think that like you've got the perfect form when you're going to make that free throw, but actually you don't even realize that your hips turn in and your foot's backwards. And like, that's why you. Shooting it the wrong way, I know nothing. Works, but I'm just trying to use an analogy other than cars, that's all.

Leisha

But in case that's the only analogy in airplanes in sports now, yeah, I was just going to say I think where you said like. Like we only have half the recipe. Sometimes is where I'm over here nodding, so so hard is because it's so true, right? So that's what I see too. When my clients come. Me and. Like truly, they have so many of the pieces in place, but then like. One of the pieces is too big, for example, to fit in their puzzle or like one of the pieces is too small, like they're too heavy on supplements, not heavy at all on, like, actually reducing their stress. They're too heavy on focusing on restricting foods and not heavy enough. And like looking at balancing what they're eating and when they're eating it and those type of things and. It really is so helpful to have someone from an outside perspective and obviously having like a professional coming in and looking at things for you is gonna be huge. And sometimes like even just being actually honest with yourself is very helpful. One thing that I love to do with my clients is do food tracking. And so much of the time, like they can come to me and be like, oh, oh, here it is. Like I can see it myself. And sometimes a lot of times, like, I have insights as well that they don't. But just really being honest with yourself instead of just being like, I don't know, I don't know. Like, what am I doing wrong? Like if you sat down and started writing down like what you're doing and what you think you should be doing, you're probably gonna see some of those gaps, even just within that.

Heather

Yeah. In a lot of terms, you can even know like, oh, this is what I should be doing. But then if you keep finding yourself like, not doing it, there's probably something there's like a block there. And that's and again, like the power of having somebody come in and. Like. Where is there a problem with integration? Maybe that you. Like, no, you should be eating a certain way, but maybe in your mind you've got like a food rule or like a restriction or something you like. Believe that's actually holding you back from being able to implement what you know you should be implementing. And that's how I think sometimes really. Small shifts can actually create like really big and really fast momentum, and that's why like when I work with clients at least like, we start with what they're already doing a lot of times because you've already got. The routine in place you've already got things that are working for you and we just need to see like, where are they working? You and. Are they not and just change? Way. They're not where I think a lot of times, even in looking. What chat CBT is saying and what I even see in a lot of programs outside of yours and mine lisha is that. People are thinking they need a meal plan. They think they need an overhaul. They think they need, you know, this whole new way of eating and recipes and cookbooks and all of this stuff, meal planning. Plans and all that. And I'm like no, no like. You are already operating probably like really, really well. What you actually need is that like shift, because that's gonna take number one that's gonna skyrocket. So fast, because again, the routines are already in place. System is already there. Trying to like rebuild an entire new system like isn't worth it, even if what you're eating is like absolutely horrible. Hate, but let's still take the frame of what you've got here. And just like shift something, you know. I've never seen something like that not be successful where you take what somebody's already doing, what? Like already works for their family. What already works for their routines, what already works like for them, and use that as your starting point. I've never seen somebody that's like too far screwed up for that to be the starting point either. A lot of times people are like. Wrong, but my gut, my thyroid didn't you know? Of. And it's like, yeah, but it could still all be like. Two to three small shifts, and that's the cool thing about healing in the way that your body was. And that's the cool thing about working with somebody who knows how your body was designed is because it's designed to work in the cascading effect. Fixing one thing actually starts to heal. Two or three other things, it is likely the exact same process and the exact same reason why you feel like everything is a mess is because you might have just gotten off in 2 little areas, but that created this build up this cascade of all these problems. So you think you've got to fix your gut and your thyroid and your hormones? And your skin. And like it's all separate and it's like, no, no, when you know how the body works, then you can just simply go in and be like, oh, this is the problem. Let's fix that. Then you start to see that your skin and your gut and your thyroid all start healing from the same two to three shifts that you were missing.

Leisha

That's one of the things that I think is the coolest about our bodies because the more that you learn about the body, the more you're like. Is incredibly intricate and there's so much we don't even understand. And then yet when we go back to the foundations of like. What we need to fix the gut in the thyroid, in the skin and the hormones, and then was like look at how all of these steps are the same steps. It's really incredible and it's really helpful to be able to pinpoint those steps for you instead of going down all these rabbit trails that you'll find on the Internet. And what if they are like 50% right or 60%, right? And like you're just not going to find one that is typically going to be 100% right for you, you've got to be able to. Discern or have someone help you discern why right instead of it just being like oh, it didn't work for me. Oh, it didn't work for me. Like you said before, like, this must be me. So I just have a quick little Side Story that I was walking with a friend the other day and we were talking about. Homeschooling and Co-op and all these things. And I was about to go off the rails and like we decided in my head that I was going to commit to something extra that I didn't need to commit. And like I started convincing myself like oh. Well, I could just do this extra class and I could, you know, make it really cool and whatever. She just stopped me and she was like, stop, stop, stop, stop. No, like just now. And I just felt that moment of relief. Was like, you're totally right. Like, why am I even trying to talk myself into this? And so I want this podcast to be that moment for you where you're talking to your friends, you're talking to your husband and you're like, OK. Almost 2025. Really going to get it together. I'm going to do this 21 day reset or I'm going to do a whole 30 or sugar cleanse or I'm going to do this thing and this time. Going to work because whatever, right? Like, let me just be the one who's like. No, don't do that to yourself. Take a breath. Let's do this in a way that is gentle and sustainable. And you're not gonna be done with the 21 days, and then you're gonna be like, well now. Like, I don't even know what when I'm done working with my clients, we don't have that conversation anymore of like, OK. When can I get like dairy and gluten and sugar and soy? And like all these things back in my DI? I'm. What we're doing is sustainable and I feel good and that's what I want for you instead of this like cycle of feeling like it's the new Year, it's almost summer, it's fall. Whatever like I have to start this whole new thing. Let's not start a bunch of whole new things like let's just work with your body in the way that it was created.

Heather

Yeah, I think I'm still good. And you know the thing too that I think about there even I think a lot you know for my clients really being in that fertility space too of feeling like well, why aren't I getting pregnant? It my. Is it like that really? This is it that. Like we want to pinpoint it to one thing and a lot of times again, it's like, hey, there's just a glitch in the system that's you're seeing the effects down. And downstream, it looks like all these different. But really, if you just fix that one glitch, it's almost like if you have like a mountain like a stream and you've got like a dam almost with rocks being in the wrong. And so you're looking at all these different places downstream and you're like, Oh my gosh, it's dried up here and it's right up here and it's right up here and it's wait, you just remove that one. Bring under that one. Set of rods blocking. It all starts to blow again and I think about that a lot and I think that that is something that isn't necessarily. The way that the traditional health care model has worked, the traditional health care model wants to separate everything and be like what is your cholesterol? Or is your blood pressure? Because pharmaceuticals can come in and basically make more money. If somebody needs support. In eight different areas than. If you find the one area that would actually create healing in all of us. You know something? We said that I thought about was just that sometimes I see at least my clients. Are doing the right things, but they're doing them in the wrong order. So if they think it's more important for them to get something tested or take this supplement or cut something out of their diet, and sometimes they might really need to cut that out of their diet, or it might be helpful to do testing. I'm like, hey. None of that is going to be really effective if you don't handle this first. And so kind of the same thing like you got to remove that. Like big Boulder that's creating the downstream effects first for you to even see what the actual picture is for you to know those next steps? And that's. Of a cool thing too, about how the body. Is that when you know how it works and you're working with that system, you can know. What are the most important things to handle 1st and as you handle those you actually start to see these small little other areas? Can kind of guide the way I'm like OK, cool like. Well, my thyroid is a lot better. And I'm still noticing this like 1 little symptom in a lot of times for my compliance. Like, OK, cool. Like that. One little symptom does make you want to think. A little bit more maybe about how your body's breaking down estrogen. So then we can know what would we test to look at that rather than starting off from the beginning and being like, let's test all your hormones. And so sometimes I think we can even have, like, these really good intentions of like finding the route. But we're trying to like find the route before we fix the main kind of like glitch that the system having.

Leisha

Yeah, exactly. And I think that just being able to like as we wrap up, think about the perspective of like. It probably isn't as complicated as you think it is, or like it's maybe not as many directions as you think it is, and so being able to really just like focus in and pinpoint the main direction you need to go. I don't wanna say the One Direction, but. The main direction that you need to go. Makes just like an incredible impact and we see that again and again that it's like once we make it more simple instead of more complicated, that's when we really start to see results. Who needs more on their plate? Like none of us do.

Heather

So yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. And I'm just looking at what ChatGPT said when I was asking it how to lose weight in 2020. How to get? In 2025.

Leisha

I think we're gonna have to to spread those out over the.

Heather

I know, I know, a whole other conversation. No, I definitely agree with. But I do think that what I was saying is that I think that's why it can feel like a lot of things because it's giving you a list of like 10 things for each one of those when the truth is to have somebody come in. Look at. And say, hey, how did you? To get like what do you need to get? What do you need to lose weight or what do you need to balance your hormones? I never have a list of 10 things for my. It's almost always like, hey, it's this and this, and then let's see where you're at, and then it's this and this. And then let's see where you're at, you know. I think that's the other. Just kind of benefit to being really particular in 2025 of the noise. You're gonna listen to. So I think sometimes too just saying like, OK, whether you pray about it or you ask a mentor or you hire a coach or. You sit with yourself and kinda have, like Aceo meeting of what is my focus and then maybe decide on one to two sources of information that's gonna come in focused in on what your intuition and the support system you've chosen. You've chosen has kind of lined up for you pretty. Yeah. Yeah, I love that.

Leisha

All right. I think that's all we've got for today. We will see you ladies next week. Any information shared on this podcast is solely for educational. Is not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I'm sharing my educated opinions and experience, but nothing shared here can be taken on A1 size fits all basis. And we always recommend that you do your own research. To your own doctor. And take full informed responsibility for any health and medical choices that you make. Hey, thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you had as much fun with this episode as I did, make sure to share it with one or three of your besties and leave a rating and review so that more and more women can find this podcast. And have happy hormones. And when you're ready to have pain free periods, no more PMS and energy and capacity to live. If you really want to live, then it's time to join us and nourish your. I can't wait to see you in there and help you have balance hormones all month long. See you next time.